Why Drew Brees Should Come Back For The Saints In 2021

Drew Brees is one of the great quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL and as his 21st season ended in a divisional-round loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,  he is seriously considering retiring as he is not getting any younger and his arm just isn’t the same as it used to be. But in this write-up, I will give a bevy of reasons why Drew Brees should not hang up the cleats and come back to New Orleans one last time.

Photo By Ian Ransley – Flickr: Drew Brees, Media Day, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18799003

1. Saints do not have a franchise quarterback on the roster - Sure Taysom Hill and former number one overall pick Jameis Winston are on the roster right now, but I do not see either of them becoming the face of the franchise for the foreseeable future. Winston was drafted in 2015 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has taken them to zero playoff appearances. Since Winston was starting in Tampa Bay, the team went 6-10, 9-7, 5-11, 5-11, and 7-9.

As a starting quarterback, Winston led Tampa to four losing seasons out of five and this is the guy who should take over the helm after Brees? I think not. Taysom Hill is an amazing athlete without question. A dual-threat quarterback out of BYU who went un-drafted in 2017 has had some success in his short time in the Big Easy. During this past season, Hill took over the starting quarterback duties since Drew Brees suffered a major injury to his ribs that kept him out for a few weeks. During the stretch, Hill led the Saints to three wins and one loss during Brees’s absence, which is good but it’s a very tiny sample size to go off of. While he was the starting quarterback, Hill led the league in fumbles and that just cannot happen while playing the most important position on the field. On top of that, he turns 31 years of age in the off-season so is Hill really the answer long term?

2. Brees still has gas in his tank - Brees recently turned forty-two years of age in January, and as they say, father time is undefeated, but I wholeheartedly believe Brees has some magic left to give to New Orleans. Just two seasons ago, Brees was a front-runner to win league MVP if it wasn’t for the young upstart Patrick Mahomes having a magical season. In the years 2017-2019 he led the league in completion percentage and in 2018 he led the league in passer rating.

In 2020, Brees suffered a major rib injury which kept him out for four games so his numbers will not be as high as previous years, but he still finished with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions which isn’t terrible. Brees has led the Saints to four straight NFC South titles and that is due in large part to him and the offense. In this past postseason, Brees and his Saints lost to the eventual Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second round of the playoffs and he played poorly. He threw two crucial interceptions in crunch time which ended the hopes of the Saints moving forward in the postseason. All in all, I still feel Brees has something left to give to the team that took a chance on him in 2006, and after all, he did sign a two-year deal two years ago as 2021 would be his last contractual season.

3. Seeing his counterpart Tom Brady win another title should light a fire under him - The Super Bowl 44 MVP recently had his season ended by the man who is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of all-time Tom Brady. Brady spent twenty years as the quarterback for the New England Patriots in the AFC conference and in his first year in the NFC as the Buccaneers Quarterback, he goes on and wins the Super Bowl. If I am Brees that does not sit well with me. Sure, the Saints defeated the Buccaneers twice in the regular season, but the postseason is really what matters, and Brees and the Saints did not get the job done. Brady has already said he is coming back for another season and Drew should do the same.

If Brees does announce his retirement this offseason, he will undoubtedly be considered a top-five quarterback of all time. He’s won the big one, countless passing records, and has one of the greatest NFL success stories of all time. I just feel that Brees is so good that he should have at least one more title to his already impressive resume. If 2020 is his last year, it was a heck of a ride and there will never be another Drew Brees.